Indicator for bath-rooms or water-closets.



PATENTED DEC. 15, 1903,

, J. J. SMITH. INDICATOR FOR BATH ROOMS AND WATER OLOSETS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 25,1903.

N0 MODEL.

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versus co. PHOTO-LWN Patented December 15, 1903.

UNllTlE Smarties arnnr rider.

JAMES J. SMITH, OF ENID, OKLAHOMA TERRITORY.

BNDICATOR FOR BATH RUOIWS OR WATER=CLOSIETS.

STECIFIGATIQN forming part of Letters Patent No. 747,252, dated. December 15, 1903.

Application filed July 25,1903. Serial No. 167,027. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JAMES J. SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Enid, in the county of Garfield and Territory of Oklahoma, have invented a new and useful Indicator for Bath-Rooms or W'ater-Olosets, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to devices employed for indicating whether a bath-room, watercloset, or similar apartment is vacant or occupied, and has for its object to produce a device of this character simple in construction, easily applied and operated, and which combines in one organization a locking and indicating means coacting to denote the vacancy or occupancy of the structure to which it is applied.

The invention consists in certain novel features of construction, as hereinafter shown and described, and specified in the claims.

In the drawings illustrative of the invention, in which corresponding parts are denoted by like designating characters, Figure 1 is a front view of a portion of a door and adjacent jamb or frame with the device applied. Fig. 2 is a view of the device detached and viewed from the interior. Fig. 3 is a sectional View on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2.

The improved device is designed for use upon the doors of bath-rooms and water-closets and similar structures or apartments to denote whether they are vacant or occupied and may be applied to any form or construction of dooror other closure, and in the drawings a portion 10 of a door and a portion 11 of the adjacent jamb or frame is shown.

Formed through the door 10, preferably near the free edge and located about where the knobs are usually placed, is an aperture 12, preferably circular and with outwardlycurving orinclined walls,as shown. Attached to the inner face of the door and covering the aperture 12 is a casing or housing 13, having a bolt-slot 14c in its outer side opposite a bolt socket or keeper 15 on the jalnb 11, as shown.

Attached within the casing 13 opposite the opening 12 and spaced therefrom and also from the rear side of the casingis a plate 16, which serves as a combined stationary indicator and guide plate, as hereinafter shown. The surface of the door adjacent to the opening and the surface of the plate 16 in view through the opening will be of a distinctive color, preferably white, so that they will be clearly observable from a distance.

The bolt member is represented at 17 and forms one arm of a bell-crank lever which is pivotally connected at 18 to the casing in position to protrude the free end of the boltarm through the slot 14 and into the keeper or socket 15 when moved into its outward or projected position and extend between the casing 13 and plate 16 when in its Withdrawn position, as indicated.

The casing 13 is provided with a curved slot 19, concentric to the pivot 18, through which the lever-operating knob 20 is connected, as shown, and operative from outside the casing. Forming the other arm of the lever and partaking of its movements is an indicator-plate 21, operating between the plate 16 and the inner face of the door and serving to cover the inner side of the opening 12 and conceal the plate 16 when the bolt is projectedand uncovering the plate 16 and being depressed into the casing when the bolt is withdrawn, as indicated. The portion of the movable plate 21 observable through the opening 12 is of a distinctively different color from the plate 16 and the portion of the door adjacent to the opening, so that when the movable plate is positioned opposite the opening that fact will be readily observable even at a considerable distance. The movable plate will preferably be red in color. In addition to the coloring of the parts 16 and 21 the words Vacant and Taken or words of like import may be placed, respectively, upon the members 16 and 21-.

Bythis simple arrangement the fact as to the vacancy or occupancy of the structure to which the device is applied will be denoted by observing the appearance of the opening 12, and the change in this appearance will be coincident with the operation of the fastening means.

. The casing 13, plate 16, and combined bolt 17 and movable indicator-plate 21 will preferably be of sheet metal pressed into the proper shape, and the keeper or socket 15 may also be of sheet metal; but these parts'may be of other metal and otherwise constructed, if preferred.

door opposite an opening therein and having a curved slot in its rear wall, a bolt pivoted at one end in said casing concentric to said curved slot, an operating-knob connected to said bolt through said slot whereby said bolt may be alternately protruded from or Withdrawn into said casing, a stationary indicator-plate within said casing and spaced from the rear wall and behind which said bolt extends when withdrawn, and a movable indicator-plate connected to said bolt and partaking of its movements and adapted to be projected across the surface of said stationary plate when the bolt is projected, substantially as described.

2. The combination with a door having a sight-openin g, of a stationary indicator-plate mounted opposite said opening and spaced therefrom, a bell-crank lever movably connected with said door adjacent said opening with one arm thereof carrying a bolt and the other arm an indicator-plate, and means for operating said lever to project or withdraw the bolt-carrying end whereby the plate-carrying end of said lever is moved across or withdrawn from in front of the stationary plate.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

JAMES J. SMITH.

Witnesses:

JOHN R. OoNKLIN, J. W. BAY. 

